A police car was shot through several times with bullets last night near the gated community where Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Fla.
According to authorities, the police cruiser was shot around 4:30 this morning. Witnesses told CBS News that they heard six gunshots last night. At least two bullets struck the empty police cruiser, which was parked in front of an elementary school at the Twin Lakes apartment complex. At least one bullet destroyed the car's window. No one was injured in the shooting, which is under investigation.
The 17-year-old Martin was killed on Feb. 26 after an altercation with a neighborhood watch member who told a police dispatcher that the teenager looked suspicious. Martin was unarmed. George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch member, claimed self-defense, and local police declined to arrest him or bring charges against him. Protesters around the country have called for an arrest, and the case has become a flashpoint in the national debates over racial profiling and gun laws. The Sanford Police Department has also faced withering criticism for its handling of the early investigation into the case.
The car's shooting came not long after a group of several protesting students blocked the doors of the Sanford Police Department headquarters yesterday, which forced the department to temporarily close.
Some of the students, who called themselves the Dream Defenders, walked for 40 miles over three days from Daytona Beach to Sanford. The students called for the Zimmerman's arrest, and for elected officials to step down.